Mystery Ingredient in My Seafood Stew.

"Why does this seafood stew have lamb fat?"

On many of my trips I do my best to allow for magic moments. You know, magic moments  are those times when you’re traveling and stop for a moment to take it all in and you become speechless or emotional. I’ve had SO MANY experiences like this in South Korea, experiences that weren't planned.

Magic moments don't have to be extravagant like our 2 star dinner at Mingles, they can be found in places like a mysterious spicy seafood hot pot place that we wandered into in Busan. It was definitely meant to be.

The restaurant didn't have English menus and even though I speak fluent Korean (when it comes to food) I had no idea what was happening, and what was on the menu. So eventually I told the server in Korean "I don't know what this is" she went on to slowly read the menu to me in Korean.... bless her heart. She then realized we still had no idea what she was saying so she pointed at something on the menu, just said "Good" and threw us a thumbs up.

She returned with a pot of raw seafood, chives, kimchi and a whole lot of gochujang and water, placed it on the burner and let it rip! This fiery looking stew terrified me but she gave me a thumbs up, so it has to be good right? 

WELL it was sublime! My lips were on fire but I couldn't stop eating it. Then we started picking up these chewy things of fat that I honestly didn't even want to share with my partner. They were like morsels of candy fat but had a ring/membrane. We later found out it was beef intestines with seafood and many younger Koreans don't eat that dish... so basically, my group is cooler than most Koreans.

These tiny morsels of fat candy were our magic moment along with the interaction with the waitress. Some of us got emotional.